Malware threats monitored

By Staff Writer for Kaspersky
Johannesburg, 16 Jan 2009

Kaspersky's 2009 anti-virus products detected more than 80 000 cases of viruses in November and December last year. The security firm monitored these attacks on an unspecified number of computers and laptops around the world.

A total of 38 190 different malicious and potentially unwanted programs were detected on users' computers in December. Kaspersky says this means the number of threats has decreased, because in December it detected 7 500 cases fewer than the 45 690 seen in November.

A statement from Kaspersky says two Top Twenties lists of malware attacks were compiled from data provided by the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) throughout December 2008. The lists' rankings are made up of the malicious programs, adware and potentially unwanted programs most frequently detected on users' computers.

Two prominent viruses have remained at the top of Kaspersky's monthly malware statistics between November and December last year. Virus.Win32.Sality.aa and Packed.Win32.Krap.b have remained at the top of the rankings.

Kaspersky noted a high percentage of new malicious programs have been written using the AutoIt script language. This is because the language is easy to master, making it simple to create new programs, the statement says.